​​High Blood Calcium is Bad is a national campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of high blood calcium. Blood calcium that is even a little bit high can cause serious health problems.

“High blood calcium is bad” is a simple phrase that can change your life.

High blood calcium is never normal and is typically an indicator of a serious medical problem. The “High Blood Calcium is Bad” campaign was started to increase awareness of the importance of calcium to our overall health, and to help doctors and patients recognize of the symptoms of high blood calcium and the dangers if it goes untreated. High blood calcium almost always means there is a hormone problem from a parathyroid tumor in the neck that should be removed. Every adult should know what their blood calcium level - it is more important than your cholesterol number and the most important blood number you should know. Do you know your calcium number?

What Causes High Blood Calcium?

How is High Blood Calcium Treated?

Symptoms of High Blood Calcium

All doctors are aware that very high levels of calcium in the blood are dangerous, but most are not aware of recent studies showing that even very mild elevations in blood calcium are just as dangerous as very high levels. Even slight elevations in blood calcium can cause a number of secondary health problems which typically make people feel bad and decrease overall life expectancy by about 5 years.

High blood calcium is almost always caused by a small tumor in the neck on one of the parathyroid glands. We all have four parathyroid glands that control the amount of calcium in our blood, and bones. We call this disease “hyper-parathyroidism” meaning the parathyroid gland has become “hyper” active. Therefore, hyperparathyroidism is a disease caused by a parathyroid gland tumor that causes high blood calcium.

High blood calcium is treated with surgery to remove the parathyroid gland tumor(s) which is causing the problem. Thus, this is a disease that is cured when the tumor is removed. This operation can be technically difficult, so it is typically performed by surgeons with an expertise in parathyroid surgery. Outcomes are much better and complications rare when performed by an expert in parathyroid surgery.

High blood calcium causes symptoms in almost everybody. Interestingly, people with only slightly high blood calcium often have the worst symptoms, including chronic fatigue, tiredness, memory loss and many aches and pains. Since the high blood calcium came from the bones, bad osteoporosis is very common. Kidney stones, high blood pressure and heart problems are also common.